Remote
by whomii2
Summary: Finch needs to hide away for his own safety [set early season 4]


Unable to locate the Machine and take out the head, the opposition instead opted to strike at the hands with a number of coordinated attacks against the agents and their handlers responsible for dealing with the Relevant Numbers. The infrastructure would be repaired and the agents replaced, but not before the enemy could put their plan in motion.

However the Machine still had access to one Relevant operative, and she had contact with Sys Admin and another asset.

Unfortunately Shaw and Reese would have to do quite a bit of globe-hopping to prevent the plot from unfolding. And John was worried about the safety of one of objectives of their enemy: the man behind the Machine that they had determined must be in the New York area. Although Carter and Fusco were more than willing to guard Finch, Harold objected. While he might have to accept that the detectives might end up in a certain amount of danger dealing with the Numbers, there was no way he was willing to have them place themselves at risk for his sake. And John was hardly in a position to argue, as he felt the same way about himself.

Finch countered that he had a bolt hole he could make use of in this situation. A remote location, only accessible by air and that infrequently, whose inhospitable cold surroundings would prevent anyone from approaching undetected. The best part was that Harold would still be able to maintain contact and assist Reese and Shaw as they tried to stay ahead of their opponents.

Shaw kept quiet, willing to defer to Reese on the matter. John was unhappy but figured a remote telecommunications outpost might be the best he could settle for. Harold was adamant about not putting Carter or Fusco in any more danger than their association had already garnered. And there was little John could do to change things; in the back of his mind he could hear Harold's voice saying "What are you going to do, shoot me?" There wasn't a way to move Harold if he wouldn't budge on the issue.

So Harold arranged for transport for Reese and Shaw to their first location and set up ways all of Team Machine could keep in touch. He then left the city in secret to surreptitiously make his way to his secure location. Harold Hawkings paid enough money to move to the front of the line in the next tourist trip to the International Space Station. Since he had accumulated a substantial portion of his wealth from video games involving alien invasions, no one would question his obsession with going into space.

The technology on the Space Station as well as Finch's access to satellites owned by several of his aliases and his ability to hack into even more would mean Harold could provide excellent intel to Reese and Shaw as they traveled while simultaneously keeping an eye on Carter and Fusco as well as monitoring their enemies. It was unlikely that anyone would be able to determine his location; even if they could worm past his misdirections the flaw in most GPS tracking programs was the underlying assumption that the target's point of origin had to be on Earth. No one would consider the possibility of an extra-terrestrial location.

Harold was delighted to find that the zero gravity environment of the space station allowed him much more freedom of movement. And some of the little extras he had brought aboard with him, once he had them in place, would be very beneficial when they resumed their work with the Irrelevant numbers.

As a tourist instead of a scientist, the other occupants of the Space Station left Harold alone for the most part once they determined he was unlikely to hurt himself or cause any problems. They lost interest in him after he had taken only a few hundred pictures of the station, his cohabitants, and of course the Earth.

Those several thousand innocuous Earth pictures would be part of a perfect smokescreen to hide some of his information packets. And to further obfuscate matters he could piggy-back some of his more sensitive data in the frequent chats held by one of the astronauts.

Only the Machine would have the fortitude to monitor communications between Howard Wolowitz and his mother for more than a few minutes.


End file.
